By P. David Hornik, PAJAMAS MEDIA
“I always value His Majesty’s wisdom and insights, and we have had a very productive session speaking about a whole range of issues that relate to both relations between our two countries but also issues of prosperity and security around the globe,” President Obama said [1] last week in his White House briefing with Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah.
Saudi Arabia and Israel are sometimes considered America’s two main Middle Eastern allies, and Obama’s treatment of Abdullah certainly trumped his conduct [2] toward Benjamin Netanyahu on March 23, when he snubbed [3] the Israeli prime minister.
It’s not as if there are no policy differences between Obama and Abdullah. The Christian Science Monitor notes [4] that “U.S. officials have expressed concern that Saudi money continues to flow in support of the Taliban, and … US and NATO forces have suffered their deadliest month of the war in June.” Moreover, Saudi textbooks [5] “teach … that Jews and Christians are ‘enemies,’ and they dogmatically instruct that various groups of ‘unbelievers’ … should be killed.” The Saudis undertook in 2006 to clean up these textbooks by 2008, but just last month the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom wrote to Obama: “This promise remains unfulfilled.”
Seemingly, funding a deadly battlefield enemy of the United States and instilling murderous hatred in a generation are “hot” issues between allies. Yet there is no indication that, in last week’s meeting or at any other time, Obama has ever had friction with Abdullah, let alone harshly pressured him to change.
How different with Netanyahu, whose rough reception last March was prompted by an announcement by a planning commission, while Vice-President Joe Biden was visiting Israel, on the building of 1,600 apartments in a Jerusalem neighborhood. Along with Netanyahu’s White House humiliation, and despite the fact that he had already apologized for the grave offense, the administration — particularly Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — tongue-lashed Israel so severely for this infraction that polls showed an erosion in American Jewish support for Obama.
With elections approaching in November and the Democrats’ prospects less than rosy, it is widely thought that Obama’s upcoming meeting with Netanyahu on July 6 will be a much more gracious affair than the last one, aimed at recouping lost ground.
Even if so, no one seriously concerned about Israel should be seduced by mere pleasantries.
Even though members of the administration have recently been averring that Israel’s security is the dearest thing to their hearts, the record speaks otherwise. Indeed, far more ominous than the Jerusalem spat was the administration’s failure to block, and then signing of, the resolution of May’s Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference. At the behest of the Arab and Islamic camp, this document fails to mention Iran and singles out Israel as the only state whose presumed nuclear capability merits concern. Previous U.S. administrations prevented such resolutions from passing. Obama’s did not.
Then came the Gaza flotilla incident. The Obama administration, while criticizing Israel less harshly than other Western leaders, failed to veto the UN Security Council resolution condemning Israel for the fact that its soldiers fired back at a life-threatening mob. Since then Obama has exploited the incident to strong-arm Israel into removing the last vestiges of the civilian blockade of Gaza — even though it means strengthening and perpetuating Hamas’s jihadi statelet on the Mediterranean. Obama has even, in what seems a particularly blind rush to “help Palestinians,” gone so far as to pledge [6] $400 million in aid to Gaza and the West Bank even though this can only mean a further boost [7] to Hamas.
And there’s more trouble on the way. With Israel’s ten-month West Bank construction freeze, instituted by Netanyahu in another of his many capitulations to Obama, due to expire in September, the U.S. is already pushing [8] for Israel to extend the freeze even though most of Netanyahu’s government wants to terminate it. With such tensions already brewing, will Obama in fact be able to keep next week’s meeting with Netanyahu civil? It’s hardly a safe bet.
Many have observed that Obama appeases enemies and dubious “allies” while being nasty to friends. The contrast could hardly be starker than in Obama’s treatment of Saudi Arabia, a sharia dictatorship that is the spigot of worldwide jihad, and Israel, a loyal democracy whose leader bends over backward to accommodate him. Attempts by Obama at this point to show that he’s really Israel’s friend have to be viewed with great suspicion.
Article printed from Pajamas Media: http://pajamasmedia.com
URL to article: http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/a-tale-of-two-allies/
URLs in this post:
[1] said: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2010/06/29/obamas_remarks_with_king_abdullah_106138.html
[2] conduct: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7076431.ece
[3] snubbed: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/03/25/president-allegedly-dumps-israeli-prime-minister-dinner/
[4] notes: http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Foreign-Policy/2010/0629/Saudi-Arabia-wants-US-to-pressure-Israel-on-peace-in-the-Middle-East
[5] textbooks: http://article.nationalreview.com/437282/saudi-textbooksbrstill-teaching-hatred/nina-shea-bonnie-alldredge
[6] pledge: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/10/world/middleeast/10prexy.html
[7] further boost: http://www.gloria-center.org/gloria/2010/06/white-house-announcement-on-gaza
[8] pushing: http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?ID=179955
He must really love you, that’s how male cats express themselves 🙂
I put the monster outside and I’m going back to sleep, but first I receive email alerts about Israel-related news and this one is interesting.
Israel loses Turkey, gains Greece as strategic partner
He’s a he, until he pees on me again, then he’s going to be a she.
You just gave my long standing argument!
Give the cat a kiss from me, he/she?, put you on my time 12:57 pm.
Joy, why is a nice Jewish girl like you up at 2:57 a.m. Pacific Time?
Because the &^!##!##&#! cat just peed on me.
I see that the Dems are having their worst fundraising in NYC since 1994, and the GOP its best. Is the cat also peeing on rich Jewish liberals? Something’s waking them up. The bad news is BiBi defeated a Likud attempt to allow it to veto a continued Jerusalem housing freeze, so he still intends to knuckle under. What a disappointment he turned out to be. Better than Livni? I don’t know, because the right wing would probably mobilize to stop Livni. Who’s going to stop Netanyahu?
Shower time.
I heard Obama is still President of the USA?
Pressure? What pressure? Explain Pressure? Whether in fact it’s true last I heard the Executive makes policy and the State Dept/ is supposed to carry out the policy of the executive. In any case the president is 100% responsible.
Now Ed Obama is still your president and we shouldn’t criticize him should we?
We can’t build our own fighter completely by ourselves, for one thing many components must be purchased and we don’t make engines. No matter how you slice it Israel would still be vulnerable to boycott or embargo from countries that service essential parts and hardware
When you own 400 nukes you should not be under any pressure. We should be the ones applying the pressure from strength. Nobody is afraid of an Israel with nukes because nobody believes we have the national balls to ever use them.
Only if Israel becomes a mad crazy state will be be able to withstand your so-called pressure.
It’s time for an Israeli SHOW N TELL
Is BB Americas Manchurian candidate in Israel?
Bibi (and the Israelis) had his chances to wean Israel off the US. They refused to do so until now. They prefer to be in the good graces of the acolytes of Haaretz and by extension the New York Times crowd. It is Post-Zionism, Buberism, the Oslo (Stockholm) Syndrome, Erev Ravism* against Zionism, Judaism.
* Eruv Rav – refers to the Mixed Multitude that rag-tag mob that left Pharoah’s Egypt with the Jews and instigated the making of the Golden Calf. Edgar G. Robinson portrayed their cravenness well as Dathan in the “Ten Commandments.
Although Bibi has faltered some in the past and, maybe some in the present, he is still the PM of Israel. The pressure put on him, not only by Obama, but the US State Department, almost forces him to kowtow to that unholy despot. Until Israel reaches the point of self sustainance, any PM will suffer the pressure. Israel must develope their defence capability, including building their own fighter-bomber aircraft, bomb factories and all other manufacturing facilities for making war. Until Israel does this, she will remain reliant upon the US. Understanding that Israel can’t do everything, Germany is building submarines and ships, India is providing other essential elements and the Balkan States are providing intel. If and when Israel is totally supported without the US will she be able to hold off US pressure, especially from Obama.